Typically, field based sales teams and call center service units are truly separate entities. They communicate via phone calls and unstructured emails. Sales leads in the call center often fail to make it to the field teams and service issues, handled by the field teams, are often delayed and improperly handled.
Often call center services are set up in a purely supporting role in regard to client calls made to a client manager. As a result, clients wait for resolution of their requests until the client manger can find time to contact the call center service and resolve the client's request. The client manager is often in client meetings or is too busy handling numerous client service requests to react to new service requests in a timely manner. Meanwhile potential sales prospects to new clients or additional add-on sales to current clients often go uncultivated because of the lack of structure and organization in the client manager's routine, especially with respect to following up on client service requests.
Additionally, there is no way to capture or control the activities of the sales force or call center staff since there are no process owners in place to monitor the effectiveness of the interaction between the sales force and call center service representatives. Furthermore, no communication standard exists for the call center to provide sales leads to the field.
Unfortunately, there are gaps throughout the sales force and call center services whereby client requests can go hours or even days before a client manager gets around to contacting the call center service and responding to the client's requests. Also, client managers are forced to deal with service related issues and therefore cannot focus on procuring more sales and add-on features. Furthermore, no tools or methods are in place to provide process control and feedback about the effectiveness of collaboration between the sales force team and call center service representatives. There is a need for systems, methods, and computer program products for effectively utilizing sales teams and call center services to manage the client base.